20 November 2014

Giddy up! It's Hasbro versus Takara in Optimus Prime / Convoy trailer Race Day!

Trailer Race Day happened on or around 4 September 2014. I took the photos on 4 Sep 2014, but it is only now that I am documenting it and writing it down.



I was at home alone that night because E was working late, after having picked up a variant of 01-Convoy from a HK collector. I suddenly realised that I had a lot of Primes on hand... and I asked myself: 'I wonder which variant of Prime has the most powerful trailer'.

And then I thought further, 'Just how powerful is the fabled VSX-style 'super' launcher. Is it really that super?'.

I grinned and resolved within myself: 'I have the Primes, I have the time - let's have me a Trailer Race Day!!!'.
So first, here is a look at all the MIB Primes / Convoys that I have. I will go into which is which later.



Here they are all lined up for the race. Note that each Prime / Convoy will be using the Roller that came with it. So, left to right:
  1. USA box pre-rub Optimus Prime (metal plates trailer and bloated parts version)
  2. USA box pre-rub 'blue' Optimus Prime (bought this from Maz; for more details of this version, see here)
  3. USA regular Optimus Prime loose (that's why there is no box behind it)
  4. Takara box 01-Convoy (sticker trailer version; bloated parts; box stamped Takara Co Ltd 1985)
  5. Takara box 01-Convoy (metal plates trailer version; bloated parts; box stamped Takara Co Ltd 1982)

Here they are.... ready... set......!

..... Go!!!

So, below is a pic where I have launchers #1 and #2. #1 went about 1.5 Roller lengths from the trailer; #2 is a little pathetic to be honest. 

I discovered that #3 would not launch no matter how I tried - the launching mechanism is not working! But we can extrapolate that the Roller distance would be roughly similar to #1 and #2's distance.
 

Next, I launched #4, which if you recall from above, has a VSX-style 'super' launcher....

Poom! Roller shot off.

My jaw dropped.

Here is the result!!!
 

I stood there stunned. 

WOW right?

Wow. So that is the power of a VSX-style super launcher. It is super indeed.

To be fair, I did not stop at one round and below I show the results of 3 separate rounds - I reset each Roller at the end of each round and launched them again.





I think the results speak for themselves. Clearly the VSX-style super launcher is superior to any of the US released Primes (was there ever a doubt?). What's also evident is that the sticker version trailer of Convoy (ie: #4) seems to be more powerful than the metal plates version of the 01-Convoy variant.

I even measured the distance. #4 launched to a distance of 1.90 metres or slightly more than 6 feet!

 #5 launched to a distance of about 1.5 metres or 5 feet.

Well, this is it. Prove that the VSX-style launcher of the 01-Convoy toy is indeed 'super'!

4 comments:

  1. You should've taken some bets before you did this....that being said, I think it's great that you're able to have this kind of fun with your collection. I get tense when people stare too hard at my stuff.

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    Replies
    1. heh, you're right I should have taken bets. Was just having too much fun (back in September). Once it's in my collection, it's in and its to be played with. Nowadays as long as I play with the stuff and have fun, I'm not even fussed if something breaks (small pieces might break off joints here and there since these are about 30 years old plastic already).

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind words and thanks for stopping by!

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